The Forgotten Victims

Experts agree that Jack the Ripper murdered five London women, but how many others did he slaughter in Britain or across the seas?

The number of women murdered and mutilated by Jack the Ripper is impossible to know, although most researchers now agree on five individuals. These five canonical cases have been examined at length in Ripper literature, but other contemporary murders and attacks bearing strong resemblance to the gruesome Ripper slayings have received scant attention. These unsolved cases are the focus of this intriguing book.

The volume devotes separate chapters to a dozen female victims who were attacked during the years of Jack the Ripper’s murder spree. Their terrible stories—a few survived to bear witness, but most died of their wounds—illuminate key aspects of the Ripper case and the period: the gangs of London’s Whitechapel district, Victorian prostitutes, the public panic inspired by the crimes and fueled by journalists, medical practices of the day, police procedures and competency, and the probable existence of other serial killers. The book also considers crimes initially attributed to Jack the Ripper in other parts of Britain and the world, notably New York, Jamaica, and Nicaragua. In a final chapter, the drive to find the identity of the Ripper is examined, looking at contemporary and later suspects as well as several important theories, revealing the lengths to which some have gone to claim success in identifying Jack the Ripper.

Paul Begg is a world authority on Jack the Ripper and the author of several books about him, including Jack the Ripper: The Definitive History. He is co-author with John Bennett of Jack the Ripper: CSI Whitechapel. He lives in Kent, UK. John Bennett has written widely on Jack the Ripper and is leader of the most highly regarded tour of Whitechapel. He lives in London.

‘A fascinating and unusual addition to Ripperology. Paul Begg and John Bennett’s book spotlights the “forgotten victims” of the 1888 killings, unfortunates once thought of as possible Ripper victims but who are not numbered in the ‘canonical’ list. The book is a useful reminder of those other murders on which the spotlight of 1888 fell but did not linger.’ – Donald Rumbelow, author of The Complete Jack the Ripper

'The clarity, entertainment and massive learning one has come to expect from Paul Begg and John Bennett make this approach to the murders from a new angle an essential addition to every Ripperologist's collection.' - Martin Fido, author of The Murder Guide to London

"Experts Begg and Bennett. . . successfully tread new ground in this thought-provoking book. . . . Refreshingly, they don't try to advance a new suspect, on the basis of evidence that could only be circumstantial. Instead, they do a convincing job of debunking myths."—Publishers Weekly

“[T]his is a punchy, passionate, forgivably inconclusive book about London’s tawdry past life, with a bit of murder thrown in for kicks."—Stefanie Marsh, The Times

"Jack the Ripper: The Forgotten Victims provides much new and interesting detail. When it comes to the meticulous details of a murder, the minute-by-minute examination of a crime and its policing, Messrs. Begg and Bennett are the very best in the true-crime genre."—Judith Flanders, Wall Street Journal